The Unlikely Inspiration for My 30 Pound Weight Loss Journey

An inspirational movie may be the spark that ignites your weight loss journey.

At least that was the case for me.

One night in September 2009, I was lounging around on my couch flipping through channels.

A few months earlier, my cable provider had cancelled the NFL network and as a consolation, they offered me the Starz movie package free for a year. This was great for me because I love movies and I never watched the NFL network to begin with.

Little did I know that this promo was about to provide me with some serious weight loss inspiration.

So I flipped to Starz and the movie that was playing immediately sparked my interest.

Normally, a scene with an attractive female or something funny would have caught my attention. This time, it was the exact opposite. There was nothing comedic about the scene. It was a shirtless dude about to kick another dude’s butt.

Normally, I would have switched the channel right then. I’m not usually into this kind of movie. But this time, I was hooked.

Gigandet plays Ryan McCarthy, the villain of the movie. He is a spoiled rich kid in Orlando who is the best MMA fighter around. The good guy, Jake Tyler, is played by Sean Faris. He had just moved to Orlando with his mom and brother from Iowa, where he played football and had a tendency to get into fights.

So he’s trying to adjust to life in Orlando, butts heads with McCarthy over a girl named Baja Miller (interesting name), gets dismantled by McCarthy in a fight at the beginning of the movie, starts training with a zen-like MMA master named Jean Roqua, and well, you can probably guess what happens at the end.

The movie isn’t exactly Academy Award material, but it does have its moments. The movie has some excellent training sequences, a great soundtrack, and once you stomach all the cheesy lines, the underlying plot is actually kind of a feel-good story.

It’s very similar to The Karate Kid, another one of my favorite movies. Also, Baja Miller is played by Amber Heard who is one of the best-looking actresses in Hollywood, in my opinion. But none of this is what pulled me in. So what was it?

Cam Gigandet was more ripped than anyone I had ever seen on screen before.

This guy took definition to a whole new level. He had the fully developed six pack abs, line down the middle of the chest, ridiculous muscle tone in the arms, the V-shaped back, you name it.

This is the look that men want to have and the look that women want to see in men. In my opinion, his condition in this movie is the pinnacle of physical fitness.

The next time the movie was on, I recorded it on my DVR. Over the next several weeks, I watched it several times. Each time, I got more and more obsessed with achieving the Cam Gigandet look.

I started researching Cam Gigandet workouts online and came across Rusty Moore’s website, Fitness Black Book. I downloaded Rusty’s Vacation Body Blueprint report which outlines exactly what to do to achieve this type of look. The rest is history.

I was skeptical at first, but after putting some of these techniques into practice, I started seeing results. I never achieved a look like Cam Gigandet, but I did go on to lose about 30 pounds and significantly improve my physique.

It’s funny to look back on this now and think that my fitness journey was jump-started by watching a movie about fighting, especially since I don’t even like fighting. But it really was that powerful.

From that point on, I felt like I was dieting and working out with a purpose and not just for the sake of it.

Anyways, the moral of my story is that sometimes, inspiration can come from the most unlikely of sources. Whether it’s a movie, song, book, conversation, anything that really gets you off your seat, just go with it.

Revisit it frequently and keep it in your head. You might experience some of your best weight loss inspiration ever.

Want to lose weight on a custom schedule without exercise or giving up your favorite foods? Use my free weekly weight loss spreadsheet.

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Published by AlyG

Author of Calorie Counting Made Easy and The Effort Matrix. Writer with over 400,000 views in health, personal finance, and productivity. Merch by Amazon designer. Professional number cruncher. Introvert. Self-improvement junkie.
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Who is AlyG?

Author of Calorie Counting Made Easy and The Effort Matrix. Writer with over 400,000 views in health, personal finance, and productivity. Merch by Amazon designer. Professional number cruncher. Introvert. Self-improvement junkie.

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